Primarily a painter my work shows evidence of traditional figurative painting focusing on the genre of still life. This representational painting is juxtaposed with a more painterly approach leading to abstraction that explores the language of paint and colour.
By constructing my own objects I am creating things that translate as real in paint from my imagination, the sole intention being to embody this transition. These geometrical or architectural forms suggest control and order that is disrupted by the painted images of their crumpled photographic forms. There is emphasis on the paint, how it is layered, depicting reflected light and shadow. The images become ambiguous, recognisable and unrecognisable at the same time. I question what is reality, the object or its image, how do we perceive an object as a representation in paint?
I am now working with a number of different mediums, transforming from 3D to 2D to 3D and back to 2D which infers a process of construction and deconstruction, playing with the notion of memory and time. The realism in the painting of my crumpled photographs is just an illusion. Furthermore, the crumpled image suggests discarded or neglected work evoking some sort of possible story that has unfolded. The artworks are displayed together creating a situation into which they maybe regarded as a single entity.
Ultimately I am exploring what constitutes an object, an image of an object, the perception of an object and reality. Is there transference of importance from the actual object to its image in paint? My artistic process is an attempt to understand the nature of our perceptual and subjective experience and is ongoing.
